


Trust

by AugustStories



Series: Personal Writing Challenge October 2019 [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awesome Wanda Maximoff, Bucky Barnes Has Issues, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Friendship, Trust, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 04:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21048212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustStories/pseuds/AugustStories
Summary: Wanda couldn't understand why Bucky avoided her, until an epiphany and Clint made it so obvious.And it was also him, her surrogate Dad, who kicked her into doing something against it.





	Trust

**Author's Note:**

> To support my friend with her inktober challenge, I made myself a writing challenge so she wouldn't be handling prompt works on a daily basis alone. I will be posting all works that aren't based on original writing where you guys wouldn't understand the context, this is day 15.

They had to work together so they were going to have to learn to get along. Which, honestly, was an utter overdramatization of the whole situation they found themselves in here. She wasn't exactly fighting with him or stuck in some kind of argument or confrontation, quite on the contrary, they avoided each other like the plague.

Or at least that was Clint's impression.

Before he let the Dad voice tell her to cross that bridge before it could become a problem for the team.

"Why me?" She had pouted like the teenager she hadn't been in years and Clint had crossed his arms over his chest, wearing that stupid fussy sweater that made him look like just such a Dad. "Why do I have to be the one making the first step?"

"Because you're a strong independent woman who is certainly not scared to talk to the ninety something Ex-POW with trust issues and grief problems," Clint had deadpanned at her and then gone back to chopping wood.

It had been the first time Wanda had returned for a weekend at the farm since she had officially resettled to the Avenger's base post Thanos' defeat. Three months now had passed since Tony's funeral and Steve's leaving, Wanda had spent most of those weeks traveling, seeing the wonders of the world without any villain chases. Visited the many places she had planned to see with Vision once upon a time, places she didn't feel sad at though now, places she memorized for him.

The rest of the time she had spent on the Barton farm with the family she had taken into her heart as much as she had been welcomed into theirs. She had laughed and grieved, she had rejoiced in simple joys and been saddened by memories, and most of all she had healed.

Upon returning to base, being greeted back by Sam and Rhodey, Wanda had felt ready to face whatever evil had to be conquered next, even if it were only simple humans with a too big ego. The Original Six were all gone, for the first time it was a completely new set up and just like their friends back then, they had to work out how they fit together first. In some ways it was easy, in some ways it needed some work. 

Sam and Rhodey had known each other a while already and got along well in general, Sam and Bucky had become friends by then as well, even if Bucky kept himself apart from the group the most at times. Peter was quickly in everyone's hearts, it was impossible not to like him. Wanda herself found herself in no trouble with anyone, mostly it was just a matter of seeing how their powers and skills could work together, especially now in a team with four people airborne.

Except for Bucky.

And she didn't mean the airborne part.

\--

Right away it became obvious to her that Bucky seemed to have caught a connection of some sorts with almost all people except her. For a while she told herself it was because she had come back last, the others already had had time to bond. Sam and Bucky had history, Bucky and Rhodey shared interests, Peter was Peter. All Bucky and her had in common was that they shared friends, and that Clint had become their rather reluctant grief counselor.

Bucky avoided her and it took Wanda an awfully long time to figure out why, an awfully long time where she had sought the problem in herself or the way she acted around him. Only after some overthinking did she realize that the problem wasn't her, or him, it was his history, it was the things they did have in common after all, even if their experiences had been so wildly different.

He had been brainwashed for seventy years.

And she didn't need a machine to control a person with her powers.

He wasn't pissed off by her.

He was afraid of her.

And that realization had hit hard because it suddenly explained so much, why he seemed to spent so much time avoiding her, why he was so overly polite in the little time they did spent together. 

He was afraid of what she was capable of doing to him even though she never would.

It triggered her first long call to Clint.

\--

It took some more weeks, another three long calls and actual visit though for her to finally work up the nerve to confront Bucky about it.

\--

In addition to avoiding her, Bucky had days where he wanted to be alone if no Avenging called, sometimes it was because he had been reminded of something bad and sometimes he drew back because he got too overwhelmed, whether it be the good or the bad kind.

He wasn't a people's person, not anymore as Wanda had long since found out. 

She picked a quiet evening to seek him out where Rhodey, Sam and Peter were being loud and obnoxious in the living room and even she had gotten annoyed by them. Bucky's door was half open so she knocked carefully and pushed the door open after he had called a "come in", he was lying on his bed with a book propped up against his thighs.

Upon spotting her he tensed.

"Hey," Wanda didn't let it deter her from her mission, Clint had pointed out endlessly that Bucky would not need coddling but a gentle kick in the ass. "I was wondering if we could talk... that meaning I got some things I'd like to say."

"Of course," Bucky told her but she could see how hard he was working on not just making a run for it again, Wanda pulled the chair away from the desk in the corner a little and sat down.

"I'm gonna be blunt because I have the feeling that otherwise I would just ramble on for an hour," she caught herself before she started rambling over not wanting to ramble. "You don't have any reason to be afraid of me." Despite already knowing it because Clint wasn't wrong about this stuff, Wanda still saw that she hit the jackpot when Bucky paled and grew so very still, book still held in his hands but entirely forgotten. "I would never get into your head, let alone do something to it. Do I have the ability to do that to people? Yes. Did I do it to mess with the Avengers back when I wasn't on their side? Yes. But in no way would I ever do it to my friends. And it wouldn't work on you anyway, at least there is a high chance it wouldn't work," she also revealed to him and that peeked his attention for sure.

He frowned, set his book to the side and sat up more straight, "Why?" He asked the question with an eager interest, desperate almost to hear why safety from such a destructive force was almost naturally granted to him.

"It doesn't work on Clint." She made it short, "not unless he really relaxes and basically gives me permission to get inside his mind. We tried it, Bucky, dozens of times. If he doesn't open himself up to me, I can't get in. And it's because of..."

"Loki."

"Yeah, he had someone messing with his mind without consent. He was dangled like a puppet on strings and he healed from that. His mind developed a kind of protection against outside invasions, next to him actively working on techniques to conquer it." She explained, Clint's centering techniques and his experiences with breaking free of even your own self controling your thoughts had helped her a great deal after the Raft. "And my powers came from the scepter."

"But I wasn't brainwashed by the scepter..." Bucky argued weakly but still he was slowly moving forward on the book, closer to the edge, closer to where she was sitting, she wasn't even sure he was noticing it. She did though, just as much as she was noticing the seed of hope in his grayish blue eyes.

"No, you weren't, but the concept is the same. I know that Clint taught you what he taught himself and me. And whatever Shuri did with your head," they both gave a crooked smile, she loved Shuri, he did, too, but if Shuri got really into it, they were both so quickly lost, "it must have brought up shields within your mind. Minds are strong, they have an incredible ability to rebuilt themselves, to protect themselves. I can't hurt you, Bucky, even if I wanted to. And I don't want to, please believe me. I know how... difficult it is to trust people again, to believe that not every new face is out to kill you."

"Wanda, please understand that it was never you I was afraid of, never you," Bucky emphasized and by then he was sitting on the edge of the bed. "You're a wonderful person but that power... Listen, before I got this thing," he held up his metal hand, "I didn't trust my own arm because it possessed a strength, a power I didn't understand, something that sometimes felt like it was out of my control and could betray me so easily. And your power? Only a complete idiot would not realize how much more stronger than a bloody metal arm it is. I spent so much time being afraid of someone else getting into my head again and then after Zemo... I'm sorry, Wanda, I really am. It's a lot still, everything around me. Of course I have friends but..."

"But even years later you sometimes feel like you're a stranger walking in some foreign lands," she easily finished his sentence. "You might be the man out of time now, Bucky, but I'm the only non-American here. I still don't fully understand this country either. But we can help each other. If you think you can try to trust me. I would never hurt you, Bucky."

"I know," he replied quick now and opened his arms, the gesture unmistakable, Wanda grinned and got up to step into the hug he offered. 

He hugged like Clint, warm and protective and like he wanted to make every single one count. They could do this, come to trust each other, work together. Become a team.


End file.
